Well, I'll add some totally unrelated experience and analysis. I play Frisbee with my dogs. We do it at an elite level. If you've seen discdogs on TV more than once, you've most likely seen me and some of my dogs.
Discdoggers have had a very rough time as a community. Talk about fractious, petty and downright nasty, some of our history makes Amanda & Andrew look like a kids spat. Anyway, let me share with you my understanding of the problems in our community, and how and why I think it went down. I've seen the same things play out in Japan and Europe, in the discdog community, and I am sure that it is some kind of human dynamic when it comes to semi- professional knowledge and talent based endeavors. OK. So, in the mid-90s, we had a couple of creative personalities that started doing a lot of training, and they were good at it. These creative people were good friends and shared their knowledge freely. Each person benefitted from this shared knowledge and their relationship. Needless to say there was some kind of split, and each creative person went their own way. Taking their knowledge, their 'stuff', that they once shared freely with them. It became 'my stuff' - 'my knowledge' . "He is taking my stuff." "He didn't come up with that, that's my stuff." Both of these people started to teach and to develop their own organizations based upon 'their stuff'. 'Stuff' that they developed together. Now "She is profiting from my stuff!" and vice versa. Because it is a small community, and personal relationships are the glue that hold it together, factions developed based upon each person's clique. These factions grew to large percentages of the community, as one could barely do anything without encountering one faction or the other. One of the main focuses of the split were on making money: "I don't want my money going to that organization." "I don't want to pay his bills." This soon got out of hand, and the one thing that could not be done was to do something for profit within the community. Somebody would get pissed off and cause a stink. Then their friends would hop on the bandwagon, and the project would get shut down because it was too much of a hassle. Discdogging is a real passion for people, and changes to the ability to express and engage in that passion are a serious issue to all members of the community. That's it, in a nutshell, I think. I think that this comes into play in this community as well. "I taught Verdi how to do that! Now he's writing a book." "Dude, Hudack got that idea from me." and so on. As people split off and take away the knowledge that was freely given and shared, and profit from it, it causes problems. Add to it the 'sellout factor' for BIG MONEY, and we have some serious opportunity for nastiness. "That no-talent Congdon..." and so on... So that's what I think the dynamic is, and I don't think it bodes well for free and open collaboration. In fact, I'm surprised that this community is as open and free as it is still. I really hope that continues, as I have learned boatloads from this community and hope to do so long into the future. I hope nobody took offense at my purposefully clumsy statements of fake-fact. I was simply trying to make a point. Some of my solutions to this dynamic, in the disdog world, which is still an ongoing endeavor: Make sure that I always remember who taught me what, and cite it, like a footnote: "Marcus Wolff taught me this." "I learned this one from Craig Rogers." etc. Do good by the community: I have given lots of people lots of stuff for free. I am always approachable and available at events, and I even go out of my way to help people out. If they are working on something and I can help them, I bust on in and help them. Speak up when something needs to be said: and say the things that are on the community's mind but are not getting exposure. Steve Elbows is a good example in this group. Anyway, I just thought I would share some of my experience in this thread, as I do believe it is applicable to the situation with online video distribution and specifically with the lack of collaborative energy right now. Cheers, Ron Last year, Network2 probably would have gotten On Dec 20, 2006, at 3:02 PM, leanbackvids wrote: > Thanks Sull for the background info. Ironically the conversation > about collaboration has halted. > > Someone posted the other day that we are in an "Age of Narcissusism". > Maybe it is generally true that vloggers are self-driven, and that is > the reason community collaboration has been difficult. > > The part that has always frustrated me about the level of community > participation is that it IS self-rewarding to contribute and > collaborate with various sites. > > This Yahoo group is a perfect example... How many people have a vlog > but remain lurkers here? Those who post regularly have become "known" > in the community. Technically, it is probably because of the urls in > their signatures. The more the person post, the more they themselves > become known. > > Posting comments on other vlogs or participating in other > directories/networks only expands the number of locations your site is > linked, which Google's page rank weights heavily. > > I feel the same way about RSS and embedding of videos. Put branding > at the beginning and the end and welcome all distribution. If you are > fortunate, you may be able to generate income off video advertising. > > Most Web-based rewards revolve around traffic... and participation > usually increases traffic. > > -Matt > http://vlogmap.org > > --- In videoblogging@yahoogroups.com, sull <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > The closest efforts that I am aware of are ourmedia.org and > node101.org. > > > > Ourmedia is still lost in orbit but I know there are some efforts to > do a > > relaunch/refocus. > > > > Node101... they succeeded in raising money from vloggercon ($20k?). > But I > > do not know what the money will go towards in the coming year or if > there is > > an interest in funding software development etc. I'm not sure what > projects > > are in store at Node101. > > > > Else... > > A project that is not in and of itself a nonprofit organization > but is > > hosted and supported by one is Videobloggers.org.... This was my > project in > > partnership with ibiblio.org. > > ibiblio does not have extra resources to help beyond the free > hosting (last > > i heard). > > I have on more than one occasion asked for help in > completing/relaunching > > that project but no response. > > Maybe thats some sort of gauge to the effect of what you are saying, > matt. > > > > sull > > > > On 12/19/06, leanbackvids < [EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > Couldn't we create a non-profit organization and build the Web app > > > under it's ownership? Would others work for that? How > successful have > > > other attempts been? I don't know. > > > > > > -Matt > > > http://vlogmap.org > > > > > > > > > > -- > > Sull > > http://vlogdir.com (a project) > > http://SpreadTheMedia.org (my blog) > > http://interdigitate.com (otherly) > > > > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > > > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
